The United States Golf Association will announce today that the nation's premier championship - the U.S. Open - will come to Pierce County's Chambers Bay Golf Course in 2015.

The association also will announce that Chambers Bay will host the U.S. Amateur Championship in 2010.

The tournaments are a tremendous coup for the county-owned golf course in University Place that opened last June. The U.S. Open alone is expected to draw 65,000 people a day and fill 10,000 hotel rooms throughout the region for nearly a week.

Based on the experience of previous U.S. Open tournaments, Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg expects a total economic impact from the tournament to be at least $100 million.

By comparison, the 2001 Major League Baseball All-Star Game in Seattle was projected to have a $60 million impact. "It's like hosting the Super Bowl for four days in a row," Ladenburg said Thursday.

The USGA's executive committee approved the tournaments Thursday at its annual meeting in Houston.

"We are excited to take the U.S. Open Championship and the U.S. Amateur to such an awesome site," Jim Hyler, chairman of the USGA Championship Committee, said in announcing the decision. "This is the first time the U.S. Open has been to Washington, and we are confident that the golf course will provide a challenging test for the best players in the world, as well as a great spectator experience for those who attend the event and watch it online and on television."